Fri, 3/23 - 9:55 PM

April, 2010

Auditions for the July/August Hideout Mainstage Show

April 28, 2010 |

Auditions for the July/August Hideout mainstage show Who is T. Henry Baudecliffe? will be happening this SUNDAY from 4 to 6 at the Hideout Theatre.

This show, to be directed by Curtis Luciani and Kaci Beeler, explores the fantastic. fractured world of this troubled and prolific artist, who passed away at Austin State Hospital last year and left behind thousands of pages of manuscript and drawings. His stories recount the (frequently bizarre) adventures of youngsters who triumph over corruption and evil through simplicity, moxie, and virtue — all filtered through Baudecliffe’s own World War II experiences. (Baudecliffe’s work, for various legal reasons, has yet to appear on the internet; the above is by Henry Darger, to whom he has been aptly compared.)

The show is going to be an experiment in working with wildly different tones and moods, stylized performances, and abstract storytelling. If any of the following things are of interest to you, you might be into this:

Big Poppa E’s Poem, Inspired by the 4/23 Spectacle

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Big Poppa E, legendary slam poet and now Hideout Level 2 student, was last week’s Spectator in The Spectacle. This means that he was charged with watching the show and then creating some sort of artistic work inspired by what he saw.

Here is his creation. As usual, it can be enjoyed by all, but will have even more meaning if you were at the show:

The Pony Wife, Inspired by the 4/9 Spectacle.

April 15, 2010 |

Last week, Madeline Chauvin watched The Spectacle, and sent us this short story, inspired by the running gag of “Pony Wife”. If you were at the show, you’ll see that she drops several references to lines and actions from the actual show, even though the content is wildly different.

The Pony-Wife

By Madeline Chauvin

She was a real looker, the Pony-Wife. Long tousled blond locks, flanks to die for, and legs that went on forever. Her thick white teeth and proud flared nostrils only added to her mystique.

She’d been hitched young, to the vicar’s son. The husband did not like to cuddle or hug or kiss, but marriage had been her life-goal, and, anyway, it freed her from the tether of her parents. That her husband had previously been engaged to Miss Ellsworth did not concern her, for that lady’s lack of dexterity and near-constant spillage of milk upon her chin were most unappealing.

Perhaps it was the butterflies flitting about before the Pony-Wife’s eyes that blinded her to her husband’s infidelity. He was charming but not that charming, and so it never occurred to her to not trust him. And so she was surprised when her elderly aunt neighed that he had indeed gone back to his bachelor ways, frolicking with Miss Ellsworth in the stable.

Disbelieving, the Pony-Wife galloped, crying, to the stable, where she encountered her husband and Miss Ellsworth mating on the floor of a stall. Her husband looked up, surprised, and announced that their improper conduct was misinterpreted, that they had just been fumbling about in the hay.

The Pony-Wife was stunned and, gasping, did what came naturally- she stomped the life right out of the two of them.

When the carnage was over and she was able to catch her breath, she tossed her head and trotted over to the kitchen, where she instructed the staff to cut up the bodies and feed them to her aunt. They were not shocked, for, as servants they knew their place, and, regardless, she could not understand much of their language, being course and the words clipped.

At dinner that night, as she dined on apples and carrots, her aunt remarked on the surprising flavor of her meat. The Pony-Wife merely curled up her lips and went back to thinking silly female thoughts.

“So, how much of that was improvised?”

April 7, 2010 |

Here at the Hideout Theatre we specialize in what we like to called improvised narratives. To us, that means full stories, or basically what look like improvised plays. They may often have a strong genre influence like our Improvised Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, or Alfred Hitchcock-style shows. Usually, our Saturday 8pm show is an improvised narrative.

One comment/question we often receive after a show is,

“How much of that was improvised?”

As an audience member, I can understand how at times it could seem, well, pre-planned. But when we say we do improv, we mean it. We actually like not knowing what’s going to happen.

Monique Daviau’s story for The 4/2 Spectacle

The Spectacle, the new Friday 10pm show, launched last week. It featured Improv for Evil, and Parallelogramophonograph debuting their new “Dick and Jane” show.

But there’s some other elements to The Spectacle that we’re very excited about. In addition to the two improv shows, we’re also including two individual artists in on the fun each week.

artist 1:Every show will feature a “middle act”, which is a performer doing a brief, under 5 minute SOMETHING in between the first and second group. Last week it was musician Jon Bolden, singing a song about trying to get a girl out of his bed.

artist 2:In the audience of every show there will be a second artist, watching intently. Their job is to produce a work of art based on something in the show that inspires them. Once it’s complete, it will be featured on the Hideout blog for all the world to see.

Monique Daviau was the first artist in the audience. Being a writer, she created a short story. Though it shares little in common with the tone or locale of PGraph’s Dick and Jane show, it nevertheless draws its inspiration from it. If you were at that show, see if you can see what elements both have in common.